


What If... Tony Offered Loki a Chance

by Merfilly



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Gen, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-11
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-29 09:39:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16261574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: At the end of the fight with Loki, Tony sees something. Something familiar.





	What If... Tony Offered Loki a Chance

**Author's Note:**

> This builds off the fact that Loki was tortured prior to leading the Chitauri to Earth. It also works from the idea that Tony is hella perceptive.

_If it's all the same to you, I'll take that drink now...._

Tony looked at the captured alien/god and saw something, something that whispered familiarity to him from the back of his brain. It was something he'd seen in the mirror more than once. 

Fear and awareness of bad choices, alongside pain made that look.

"Sure. Thunderstruck, keep an eye on him. Big Guy, try not to smash him again," Tony said nonchalantly, making half the team stare at him.

"Stark?" Natasha asked, being one of the few who had not stopped watching the captured enemy.

"You see it. I mean, it's you. You have to."

The Black Widow of their group grimaced, even as Tony walked over to his mostly demolished bar to get what he could for a drink.

"Might be a really bad call," she answered him.

"Or it might give you an insight into the true threat Midgard faces," Loki said, as he reached for the slim thread of what Tony was offering. He ignored the hostility of the archer he had controlled, the set jaw of the pretty one with the shield, and most especially the low rumble of warning that his dear dumb brother had made.

"Not sure I can sell it to Fury," Natasha said evenly, ignoring the Asgardian.

"Don't worry. You won't have to. Point Break has jurisdiction over Elphie there, and will get him out of the way long enough for the US Government to realize they don't want to go to war with Asgard," Tony said. He then looked a little put out, as he came back with that drink, that none of the team got his wit. He handed it to Loki, eyes locking on him. "And the reason he's going to cooperate with Muscle Boy's witness protection program is that we kicked his army's ass. So maybe, just maybe, we can handle the ones that gave it to him."

Loki's eyes glittered from the edge of the hole he'd been moved to, but he took the glass. "You had best pray that you are so capable, Stark, or today will be nothing more than the brief reprieve I believe it to be."

"I do not think — "

"Generally, no. I do, though," Tony said, interrupting Steve. "We need what he knows, Capsicle. He needs allies to keep from having to admit the failure here to badder people than what we faced today. It's not so different than the US working with Russia in your war, despite differences in opinion about how to run a country."

"He is banished from Asgard," Thor said, getting a violent glare from the nominal prisoner.

Tony rolled his eyes. "Is subterfuge and sneakiness only a Russian trait these days?" Natasha smirked at that, but kept her eyes on Loki like the good little killing machine she was. "You hide somewhere with him; we all meet up in a few days once things settle back into the usual way of ignoring all the problems in favor of building megalithic military cultures." He then looked at Loki's glass, untouched so far. "Drink up, Trickster. You need to teach your surfer dude a few things."

"Oh, if only he'd ever listened," Loki said, before downing the bourbon he'd been given.

* * *

"Tony, why is the God of Mischief living in our penthouse with us?"

Tony looked over at Pepper with a moment's confusion, and then made the 'eureka' face as he pieced it together.

"Tall, dark, and tricky is staying with us because no one else wanted him," Tony said cheerfully.

"Uh-huh?"

Tony stood up and went over to be in front of her, savoring the look on her face, as she did the 'why do I indulge you' thing. "Dr. Foster can't be in the same room with him without contemplating the kind of science that old science fiction shows use to make monsters. He's a little nervous being around the Big Guy, can't imagine why. Our local X-File Agents have to pretend they don't know he's helping us. 

"Capsicle wants to treat him as a prisoner of war… though at least he'd abide by Geneva… and that pretty much left me. Which, fair; my idea, and brilliant at that. So, he gets to Netflix and chill — "

"Don't say that. Really, I know JARVIS teaches you memes," Pepper interrupted.

"— and I get to learn all I can about the people I decided to nuke instead of my own," Tony finished. 

Pepper met his gaze unblinkingly, then shrugged her shoulders. "Alright. But remember, we don't really have a huge slush fund for recovery efforts if he starts breaking the world, okay, Tony?"

"Promise."

* * *

"Why?"

Getting drunk with a god, demigod, godling… whatever, might not have been Tony's best idea. It beat trying to sleep and having another nightmare though.

"Saw something," Tony told him. "Something familiar."

Loki searched his face with that unblinking look, the same one a cat would use in an uncomfortable situation. "I'm not going to go all light and twinkle sweet just because you gave me a hand," he said when he did look away.

"Thank god," Tony said before taking a healthy drink from his tumbler. "You'd be boring then. Unless you try to out-manner Dorito Boy."

Loki half-smiled at that. The irreverent way Tony referred to everyone around him, except Pepper, was growing on Loki as he taught the Avengers enough to stay ahead of the larger galaxy. It was purely a mercantile exchange; Tony gave him a haven and aid against the coming evil for the knowledge.

"Then why is still the question, if you do not believe that which you saw is enough to bring me to the, what is it you say? 'Side of the angels'." Loki then paused a moment, and his mouth quirked. "Though, if we could find some that actually match the narrative of their source material, they might be an effective front line."

"I'll have to look into the multitude of eyes and flaming swords then," Tony said. He looked out the window over the skyline. "Just because I don't expect you to change doesn't mean I can't have empathy for a man that lost it all, and looked into himself because of it. I might have made your choices… become a militant autocrat to cover for my previous failures. Made the devil's deal with the government, even.

"But I didn't. I chose my path. Something told me, if I didn't offer you the chance, you might not have gotten that choice." Tony then slapped a hand on Loki's shoulder, which was greeted with an indignant cat face, if Tony was going to stick with his metaphor of the night. "Ragnarok hasn't started yet, right? Gotta be there for that, you know."

Loki eyed the hand again, then his drink, and drained it down.

He actually hoped Tony was right on that. He had a few scores to settle before the end of the world.


End file.
